They Always Leave Traces
by emmylouuwho
Summary: 5.12. One-shot of Doctor and Amy and the wedding ring. From Amy's point of view.


Amy carried a lit torch around the cavern, lighting the others from it, while the Doctor puttered around, leaning close to the Pandorica, sonic screwdriver whirring.

"So what's this gotta do with the TARDIS?" she asked.

"Nothing, as far as I know," the Doctor replied distractedly, still examining the box.

"But Vincent's painting," Amy said, remembering the image of the blue police box shattering into a thousand pieces. "The TARDIS was exploding. Is that gonna happen?"

"One problem at a time," the Doctor said loudly, in the overly confident voice that always made her a bit nervous. "There's force shield technology inside this box. If I can enhance the signal, I can extend it all over Stonehenge. Could buy us half an hour."

"What good is half an hour?" she asked incredulously, turning towards him with her hands on her hips.

The Doctor continued examining the box with his screwdriver, his nose centimeters from it. "Look, there are fruit flies that live on Hopitum 6, that live for twenty minutes. And they don't even mate for life."

Amy gave a small frustrated nod and turned away. _Typical Doctor answer that's not even an answer_, she thought.

A puzzled frown came over his face, as if he'd just realized what he'd said. "There's gonna be a point to that. I'll get back to you."

Amy's arms flopped to her sides, and she felt the ring box in her pocket. Pulling out the small red velvet box, she opened it to look at the gold band with a single diamond once more. That ring had been a nagging thought in the back of her mind since the moment she'd found it in the Doctor's pocket, while innocently looking for a pen.

_Is he going to propose to someone? River maybe? He said she's his future, and he's her past. But what does that even mean?_ There was something about that ring she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"So." Amy turned to the Doctor slowly. "Are you proposing to someone?" She held up the open ring box.

Still distracted the Doctor replied without looking up, "I'm sorry?"

She stepped closer to him, gesturing with the box. "I found this in your pocket."

A strange, sad look came over the Doctor's face, a look she didn't understand. It was in moments like this, when a shadow of the ancient, lonely man crossed over his young features, that she was reminded of how alien he was.

"No." He turned, Pandorica forgotten for the moment. "No, no, that's a memory, a friend of mine. Someone I lost. Would you..." He reached for it, but Amy held it out of reach, and his head sank sadly. "...mind?"

Amy held the small box in both hands, looking at it, her mind swirling in confusion. It was as though it were familiar to her, but it wasn't. A part of her, that wasn't part of her, was afraid of losing it. She'd run away from the feeling that ring gave her, and yet she hadn't. "It's weird. I feel... I dunno, something."

She could feel the Doctor looking at her a moment before he spoke. "People fall out of the world sometimes, but they, they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for - faces in photographs, luggage, half-eaten meals... rings."

Amy looked up at that. _What does that mean, 'fall out of the world?'_ She looked back at this ring that was a trace of something.

"Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And, if something can be remembered, it can come back."

She knew he was trying to tell her something, something more than what he'd actually said...

Amy snapped the box shut on her jumbled thoughts with a sigh, and looked up at him with a thin-lipped smile. "Was she nice? Your friend?"

He took the proffered box back with a half smile, smacking himself lightly on the forehead with it, in that gesture that said he thought he was being thick. The Doctor stowed the box in his pocket, turning back to the Pandorica. But then he was looking back at her again.

"Remember that night you flew away with me?"

Amy cleared the unexplained lump from her throat. "Course I do."

"And you asked me why I was taking you, and I told you there wasn't a reason. I was lying."

She was immediately suspicious. "What, so you did have a reason?"

"Your house."

Amy sighed. _And we're back to those kinds of reasons._ "My _house_," she repeated, rolling her eyes.

"It was too big, too many empty rooms." He paused, and the thought that she was definitely missing something was back. "Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life doesn't make any sense?"

She never had time to ask the Doctor what he meant, however, because at that moment they were attacked. And by a severed robot arm, no less.


End file.
